Miniskirts {are} X-rated, claims Indonesia's porn taskforce

[CamelMan]

Miniskirts X-rated, claims Indonesia's porn taskforce

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta
March 30, 2012


INDONESIA'S religious affairs minister believes miniskirts are pornographic and should be banned under the country's tough new anti-porn laws.

In comments endorsed by the country's leading Islamic advisory body, Suryadharma Ali said ''one [criterion of pornography] will be when someone wears a skirt above the knee''.

Dr Suryadharma, leader of the United Development Party, was appointed earlier this month to run Indonesia's anti-porn taskforce, announced and supported by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Advertisement: Story continues below Dr Suryadharma said that, before deciding what the taskforce would ban as pornography, it would consult widely to come up with ''a set of universal criteria''.

''Pornography is something that we can feel … but we have to make the criteria,'' he said, adding that wearing miniskirts would qualify. His comments were backed by the Indonesian Ulema Council , representing all Indonesia's Islamic groups.

''According to Islamic sharia [law], women not only have to wear long skirts but they have also to cover up all the private parts of their body,'' deputy secretary of the council's fatwa commission, Aminudin Yakub, told news website Detik.com.

Dr Suryadharma made no comment on how tourists in places such as Bali would be treated. A spokesman from his ministry told The Age there had been no directive yet on how the anti-pornography taskforce would counter offences.

Earlier this month, parliamentary speaker Marzuki Alie said he would draft rules banning female politicians and staff from wearing short skirts because they were distracting and that ''there have been a lot of rape cases and other immoral acts recently and this is because women aren't wearing appropriate clothes''.

''You know what men are like,'' he said. ''Provocative clothing will make them do things.''

The anti-pornography taskforce is widely seen as an attempt to distract the populace from issues such as corruption scandals around the Democratic Party of President Yudhoyono and the move this week to increase petrol prices.

Indonesians practise a generally liberal version of Islam, although there has been a move in the past decade or two for a more conservative interpretation. Women's groups and human rights activists have protested against the recent concentration on clothing.

A spokeswoman for the National Commission on Violence Against Women called the proposed miniskirt ban a violation of women's rights, adding sexual assault had nothing to do with either pornography or the length of women's skirts.

''Many women [who were] raped happened to wear very conservative clothing,'' she said. ''They were raped anyway.''



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/minis...#ixzz1qYD7KmtG

[granada]

In Indonesia, the government seems to love putting forward an issue to do with sexual morality every time their corruption is highlighted. There have been protests all over the country this week over the raising of petrol prices after the President promised not to do so.